A Clear Word

It is a Word from God many do not want to hear.  It is a Word that leaves us with no wiggle room.  Only blatant disobedience enables us to live as if though we are out from under it.  While such is true of any Word God speaks, either by the Spirit's presence in our heart, or through the written Word, there is something about this Word written by the Apostle John that demands our attention.  "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?  (I John 3:17).  

This letter John wrote to the early church is all about the love of God.  It is also all about loving one another.  This question posed by John offers a litmus test to tell us how seriously we regard the call of Jesus to love one another.  We love one another not by saying we love one another, but by a sacrificial and generous life which counts nothing as ours and everything as His.  When we walk with Jesus as one who has denied all to go after Him, there is no room for excuses, there is no room for rationalizations, there is no room for holding tightly what has been given to us by Him.  The truth that we often want to deny in order to protect and preserve our holdings which give us security is that we are among the affluent.  

We are among those who have the world's goods in such quantity that we have more than enough to meet our own needs.  We have an abundance which is not to say we have boatloads of money, but that we have enough to share with those who are destitute, hungry, and broken.  John reminds us that disciples are not stingy, but generous.  They do not hold tightly, but loosely.  When they see a brother or a sister in need, they do not look for a reason to look away, but look for a way to share the love of Jesus Christ.